Huawei CEO: potential absence from Windows Phone 8 launch due to US political factors

It looks like the other shoe has dropped with OEM manufacturer Huawei and US relations. We reported a few weeks ago that the US Congress took a strong stance against Huawei and ZTE due to their closeness to the Chinese government, accusations of IP theft and other irregularities with the company.

Now the CEO, Yu Chengdong, has taken to the social network Sina Weibo to announce that Huawei will be absent from the Windows Phone 8 launch at the end of the month and the reason is due to (translated) “Sino-US political and economic storm”.

That sounds like Microsoft may be distancing themselves a bit from Huawei until this controversy blows over or in the worst case scenario, Huawei is dropped from Windows Phone 8. Indeed, through personal communication with people in the know at Microsoft the impression we were given is they do not want to talk about Huawei.

The message posted on Sina Weibo

Recently, a render and real photos of the Huawei Ascend W1 made the rounds. Featuring a 4” WVGA display and a 5MP camera, the device looks to fill in a mid-range portion of the Windows Phone 8 lineup—an area that we think is not exactly lacking.

The device is quite nice looking but as we’ve suggested, Huawei has borrowed heavily from Nokia (color, 2D glass) and HTC (One X’s camera housing). We’re not sure if that factor has played into this apparent distancing by Microsoft but we don’t think it helped.

Huawei CEO: potential absence from Windows Phone 8 launch due to US political factors

The quality of their devices is a seperate issue from accusations of IP theft and their close relations to the Chinese government. And the Ascend W1 should tick off Nokia and HTC as it's blatant theft...

That article changes very little--the original report cited their close relation to the Chinese government and past activities related to Cisco and Nortel as reasons to not do business. (The CEO was in the Chinese military and has many connections in the gov't). They also can't verify whether or not those "back doors" were done on purpose or are just due to terrible programming--how that makes anyone feel any better about Huawei is beyond me.

ALL code has vulnerabilities and can be hacked. Huawei may be sloppier than some, but they are all vulnerable. Go ahead and use Cisco's equipment. I have no dog in that fight, but the commonly held belief that Huawei HAS been using their equipment to snoop and steal is just not true. Hate them because they aren't the best, refuse to use their equipment because it may be more vulnerable, but to categorize them as sneaky, conniving agents to the evil Chinese empire reminds me too much of those awful anti-Japanese war propaganda posters.